


Swan song

by Naegling



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, M/M, Old Married Couple, Open to Interpretation, Poetry, Sailing To Valinor, Song - Freeform, Valinor, first person narative, thoughts and feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 08:05:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11100399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naegling/pseuds/Naegling
Summary: They say a swan sings it's most beautiful song just as it is about to die. This was not death, no, not quite. But it was the end of something.





	Swan song

We were standing by the shore, the elf, and I. The gray ship was built. It was a simple vessel, but sound, and well constructed. It's unadorned sails billowed in the gust. 

All the preparations had been made, everything we would need had been packed, everything we didn't had been given away. 

I remember how I felt that day, though I do not have the words to explain that feeling to you. But since I have all ready mentioned it, I suppose now I have to try. 

It was a bitter kind of sweetness, a calm apprehension, a victorious defeat. Most poignant of the feelings I recall, was a strange, bewildering sense of clarity. 

Legolas did not speak, but I knew he felt the same. 

He was fiddling with a net, he had set out to untangle. There was no urgency in his movment, no impatience in his gestures. 

I remember, the gulls were calling their customary cries, and the wind was wailing, and the waves roared as the pummeled the cragy shoreline, like a legion of soldiers meeting their foe. Although this sound drowned out nearly all others, I could still hear him humming quietly under his breath. I heard him also when his wordless tune took wing, grew words and became a song. I had witnessed this metamorphosis countless times, and thought little of it at the moment. Had I known that this was to be the last time I would hear him sing, I would have payed closer attention. 

He hums still sometimes, whistles cheefully on ocassion, but it is not the same, nothing is really. 

There are many in the Undying lands with voices fairer and more grand than either of ours, there are many who write songs longer and far more complex than his had ever been. There are many voices that fill the air here, on this lonley isle but still, I wish his was among them. 

It was not a lament, and could by no means be called a ballad, it was simply a song. A song that contained both the joy asnd the sorrow that we felt at the time far better than I could. 

In Middle Earth we had known much grief, and many sorrows. We are so removed now from the constant peril and strife now, that I wonder on occasion if all that happened truly did. I remember the events clearly, but I feel detached from them somehow, as if they happed to someone eles. I remember how I felt during times of darkness, But the memories do not make me sad, nor do they frighten me. There is no pain here, not even in the memory of it. It is restful, peaceful, stagnant.

I wonder if that is why he no longer sings.

There was wonder, and enchantment when we first arrived. Ah! The light and the music, and the glory of the West to eyes that have never beheld It. But the enchantment wore off eventually, and things that once inspired wonder are common place now (not that I mind). We could go searching for more wonder, if we wished. It is a big island after all. But I find I am to old for such things, and so is he (though he does not appear so).  
'No, no wonder for us thank you, no danger or adventures, we've had quite enough of that'.  
Legolas would laugh if I said that out loud, he would say that I sound like a Hobbit. But he would, I think agree. Our time has passed away, and I do not argue, or struggle against it, as I would have, in my youth. 

I simply wait. 

But that is'nt what I meant to write, no. What was it? I can't seem to remember. Oh, yes of course.  
The song. 

 

I have compiled, what little of his song I can remember, and translated the lines that were sung in Sindarin the best I can. 

The tune of it, I am afraid, I can not recall. Only that It went to to rythym of the crashing waves, in the key of a white bird's cry.

The words went something like this; 

 

Farewell sweet Earth, and mortal sky,  
I walk a strange and  roadless way.  
I leave your shores for paradise,  
Across the waters wide and gray.

Farewell elm, and willow tree.  
Farewell  roots Within the earth.  
Farewell brook, and laughing stream,  
and woods that I have known from birth.

Farewell Winter's freezing breath,  
and to the Autumn's passing sorrow.  
The golden Sun is headed west,  
and all my kind are bound to follow. 

Farewell dawn light after dark.  
Farewell springtime after snow.  
Farewell wren, and meadowlark,  
the gulls are calling, I must go.

Farewell to the fleeing  years,  
to things that wilt, and things that fade.  
Farewell bitter mortal tears,  
Farewell to the light that wanes. 

 

Farewell ruins of weathered stone.  
Farewell hills that house the dead.  
Farewell hearth, and farewell home,  
and all the paths that I have tread. 

 

Farewell lives that pass and flee.  
Farewell land of youth and death.  
I am going far across the sea,  
where weary hearts may find their rest. 

The boat is made, and the gulls are crying, and the seasons change, and sails are flying. 

Farewell land I've grown to love,  
you bore well and made me strong,  
but I have lingered long enough.  
One should not linger overlong. 

Farewell sweet Earth and mortal sky,  
I walk in shade beneath your woods,  
and behold your mountains for a time   
before I leave for your shores for good. 

My memory retains nothing more of the song, only that as he sang it, he wept, and so did I. Only that It was the last time either of us ever did so.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, tell me what you think in the comments, if you have the time.


End file.
